Ukraine war: ‘Space cooperation only possible when sanctions lifted’, says Russia

Name: Chinese space contractor plans for ‘arduous’ year as China-US space race intensifies
Uploaded: 2022-04-02T10:30:35.000Z
Duration: 1 min 30 s
Description: Chinese space contractor plans for ‘arduous’ year as China-US space race intensifies

Russia’s space director Dmitry Rogozin says restoring ‘normal relations’ between International Space Station partners can only happen ‘with full and unconditional removal of illegal sanctions’

Despite the tension, US astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts landed in Kazakhstan this week after leaving the space station in the same capsule

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NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei landed safely in Kazakhstan on Wednesday with two Russian crew mates, but the war in Ukraine is putting the future of collaborative space exploration in doubt. Photo: via Xinhua

Reuters

Published: 6:30pm, 2 Apr 2022

Russia’s space director said on Saturday that the restoration of normal ties between partners at the International Space Station (ISS) and other joint space projects would be possible only once Western sanctions against Moscow are lifted.

Dmitry Rogozin, head of Roscosmos, said in a social media post that the aim of the sanctions is to “kill Russian economy and plunge our people into despair and hunger, to get our country on its knees”. He added that “they won’t succeed in it, but the intentions are clear”.

“That’s why I believe that the restoration of normal relations between the partners at the International Space Station (ISS) and other projects is possible only with full and unconditional removal of illegal sanctions,” he said.

Russia’s space director Dmitry Rogozin, left, speaks to Russian cosmonauts in March. Photo: via AP

Rogozin also said Roscosmos’ proposals on when to end cooperation over the ISS with space agencies of the United States, Canada, the European Union and Japan will soon be reported to Russian authorities. He has previously said that the sanctions could “destroy” the US-Russian partnership on the ISS.

The West has introduced sweeping sanctions against Russia over what Moscow calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine, launched on February 24.

Despite the tensions, a US astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts safely landed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday after leaving the space station aboard the same capsule.

Mark Vande Hei of Nasa (L) with Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov (C), and Pyotr Dubrov of Roscosmos in their spacecraft after it landed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday. Photo: via dpa

The European Space Agency said last month it was suspending cooperation with Roscosmos over the ExoMars rover mission to search for signs of life on the surface of Mars.

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Chinese space contractor plans for ‘arduous’ year as China-US space race intensifies

British satellite venture OneWeb said last month it had contracted with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to send its satellites into orbit after calling off a March 4 launch of 36 satellites from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan because of last-minute demands imposed on it by Moscow.